


(ghosts and clouds and) nameless things

by InkCaviness



Series: Sylvix Week 2020 [5]
Category: Fire Emblem Series, Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Angst, Crimson Flower Ending, Ghosts, M/M, Modern Era, POV Outsider, Post-Black Eagles Route (Fire Emblem: Three Houses), Sylvix Week 2020 (Fire Emblem), no beta we die like Glenn, no death on screen but like. they're dead, rather mild angst i think
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-25
Updated: 2020-09-25
Packaged: 2021-03-07 20:41:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,248
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26643916
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/InkCaviness/pseuds/InkCaviness
Summary: Legend has it a ghost haunts the old Gautier castle. A washed out figure, tall and broad with bright red hair and a scruffy beard, standing watch at the window of what used to be the library, the room from which you can best see the trodden path leading up to the castle.
Relationships: Felix Hugo Fraldarius/Sylvain Jose Gautier
Series: Sylvix Week 2020 [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1935136
Comments: 2
Kudos: 47





	(ghosts and clouds and) nameless things

**Author's Note:**

> sylvix week day 5, prompts: myths & legends au  
> title from [maybe sprout wings](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=isYBSJXrxAc)  
> by the mountain goats

Legend has it a ghost haunts the old Gautier castle.

It’s nothing more than a tourist attraction by now, the last member of the house having died years ago without leaving children behind but the castle has managed to survive, deep up in the northern mountains. Maybe it was thanks to the legend. It's a good marketing scheme at least, the ghost tours held at night, the promise of being allowed to sleep in the room the spirit was said to appear in most often drawing tourists in. Sure, maybe some of them genuinely care about the generations of people that lived here, or maybe even about the origin of the story, but Sylvain Jose Gautier has managed to draw far more of a crowd after his death than he probably ever did while he was alive.

A mere traitor during the Great Fodlan War, some would argue, a personal friend of King Dimitri Alexandre Blaiddyd of Faerghus who still abandoned his loyalties to the Kingdom in favor of fighting for the Adrestian Empire. A hero, others might say, who recognized the corruption running deep in the old nobility and the Church of Seiros and made the right choice of fighting for a better future.

But in the end few people know Sylvain Jose Gautier by name. To most he is, at best, known as The Red Watcher. A washed out figure, tall and broad with bright red hair and a scruffy beard, standing watch at the window of what used to be the library, the room from which you can best see the trodden path leading up to the castle. Sometimes, the legend said, he would abandon his watch and instead sit hunched over in one of the corners, carefully sharpening a sword and weeping silently.

No one knows quite who he's waiting for. A battalion he had abandoned in the mountains during the war, some said, the man plagued by guilt over his soldiers’ demise. A lost love was the easiest explanation, probably the one best to sell as well. Margrave Gautier hadn’t exactly been known for keeping steady relationships, some historian might throw in, but what’s more romantic than that; a deep hidden love that never made it into any records.

There’s another theory. Felix Hugo Fraldarius. It’s a name that takes a bit of digging to find even though, once you find it, it seems like it really shouldn’t have been so deeply buried. The second son of Rodrigue Achille Fraldarius, a name much more well known, and arguably the one who should have taken over the Dukedom Fraldarius right after the Great Fodlan War. And yet, he had vanished almost immediately afterwards, leaving the estate in the care of a cousin. The theory arose from two letters, written by Margrave Gautier in the Imperial Year of 1206, addressed simply to _My Dearest Friend_. They’re short letters, asking for assistance in an unnamed matter and the other side of the conversation seems to have been entirely lost. It’s a rather far-fetched theory, after all why would the Margrave weep after a friend who’d abandoned him so readily after they’d betrayed their homeland together.

_Maybe he’s pissed the dude never helped him out!_ , some would laugh during the ghost tour, usually the ones deeply convinced that the Margrave had lost his heart to some fair but cruel maiden who left him for another.

It doesn’t take much imagination to picture The Red Watcher standing by his window at night, after all his portrait hangs just outside the door in the hallway. It’s just one in a long line of family portraits. Or rather, he’s there twice. Once as a child, pictured with his parents and an older brother. A somber picture, like most of them, dark except for the faint glow around the Lance of Ruin, an old relic weapon that’s almost as much of a legend now as The Red Watcher. The weapon seems to be the focus of the painting, rather than the people. The second one shows him alone, older, much more rugged but somehow more content than he had looked as a child.

It’s the first Gautier portrait without the Lance of Ruin and the relic never shows up again afterwards but the portraits seem to get brighter.

* * *

Legend has it a ghost haunts the forests of Fodlan.

Well, really, there are many ghosts haunting the woods across the continent but this one is most often spotted in the northeastern regions. It’s easy to imagine a shadow following you at night out alone in those parts but, unlike others, this ghost never seems to, well, actually haunt people. It won’t harm you but if you’re alone and make a campfire late at night it might ask to sit down with you. It’s a man barely past middle aged, hair hidden under a fur lined hood with only a few dark strands hanging out but his face looks haggard in the campfire glow. Judging by the clothes he must’ve been dead for a few centuries at least. Some say one of his eyes is scarred over, the other glowing amber in the dark.

It’s an unusual ghost. Most people who meet him say they didn’t realize they were talking to something long dead until the next morning even though, really, it should have been obvious. They should have been scared. But they never are, maybe a bit sad at most. There’s a sword by his side and the most careful observers report there’s an empty sword sheath on his other side.

The ghost likes to make a bit of conversation and even ask for food if you’re grilling meat. The conversation never makes much sense, but maybe that’s just how ghosts tend to be.

_Could I have saved him?,_ the ghost sometimes mumbles and if you ask _who_ he might even tell you about his old friends. The boar, he might tell you, didn’t deserve what he got in the end, even if he’d been on the wrong path. And neither did the others, the ones who decided to stay with him. He never tells you their names or even his own.

If you’re particularly lucky he might ask you for help.

_I should have returned to him_ , the ghost explains, _I shouldn’t have left but_. At that point his voice cracks. _But I didn’t know what to do with myself._ He’s gotten lost in the woods and if he just finds his way back he _knows_ there’s at least one person still waiting for him. It’s a fruitless effort, he never seems to be able to tell you where exactly it is he’s supposed to be going or who might be waiting for him.

No one’s met him on purpose so far, a restless lost wanderer who only sits with those who weren’t trying to find him.

There’s a second ghost stalking the woods and some say it’s the same as the man by the campfire. If you get lost in the forest during a snowstorm, the legend goes, think of who you most wish to return to and the figure of a person will appear to you. You can spot them even through a blizzard, holding a golden shield that shines through any darkness. And if you follow them it’s said they will always lead you to safety.

Maybe it’s the same lost ghost, making sure no one else suffers his fate.

Maybe, one day, he’ll find his way back.

**Author's Note:**

> thanks for reading, comments are greatly appreciated!  
> you can also find me on [twitter](https://twitter.com/InkCaviness) and retweet this [here](https://twitter.com/InkCaviness/status/1309418476956770305?s=19)!


End file.
